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NATIONAL 110 STATE POLITICS OF 1871 REVIEWED, 



SPEECH 

— OF — 

HON. ROSCOE CONKLI 

a 

— AT — 

Twaddle Hall, Albany, Oct. 11, 1871. 




-o~ 



In the Capital of the State, where hospitality has ever been gen- 
erous and free, no citizen need feel himself a stranger. But the 
warmth of your greeting has a double meaning for me. I was born 
in Albany, and childhood's recollections have never faded. To visit 
your city, is not so much to go away, as to return home; and to 
speak to Albanians, is to converse with neighbors, rather than to 
address an audience assembled from afar. 

The topics you expect me to speak of to-night, lie in a wide field. 

Forty-five States and Territories are now gathered under our 
flag. All are self-governed, because public questions are solved by- 
public elections. All are free, because the right to vote, is the right 
of all. This group of communities, cemented in one great Repub- 
lic, stands alone in history. The centuries and the nations have not 
looked upon its like. It is the best product, thus far, of man's intel- 
ligence, enlightened by man's experience. It was not the work of 
one generation, but of all generations. Our fathers produced it, but 
the world was thousands of years in producing our fathers. Since 
cre.ition's dawn, government has been the greatest of human prob- 
lems. Lsarnin* wis lorn, science, philo3>p!iy, religion, hive in all 
ages toiled together in devising politics and systems. Every form 
has been set up, and every form has fallen down. Despotisms and 
democracies alike have perished. 

War an 1 corruption have been the two architects of ruin. These 
destroyers have strewn time's shores with wrecks. They polluted 
the earth as soon as nations possessed it — they desolated the ancient 
seats of civilization — they have unpeopled empires, and crippled 

, — l J 



2 .CT5" 

progress since. The conflict still goes on, and still the question is, 
Can any system prevail against them? This problem perturbs both 
hemispheres every day. The old world, divided into contending 
nationalities, has perils of its own, with which no rival on this con- 
tinent can menace us ; but here and there, and everywhere, the 
puzzle of government baffles ultimate solution. Even now, Europe 
wails sons and cities freshly slain — and Paris, the world's fairest cap- 
ital, wounded and begrimmed, writhes between self-government and 
suicide. 

England, with a parliament eight hundred years' old, and a mon- 
archy scarred and altered by many revolutions, has survived, by 
constantly widening the foundations of her system so as to yield 
more and more to popular right. But England's system is such that, 
unlike ours, it does not place reforms within the people's reach — 
this may be painfully illustrated on a day now rapidly approaching, 
when the sceptre will fall from a hand already smitten with grief 
and wavering with infirmity. 

America, alone, has a government rooted in the people — a govern- 
ment with a base so broad, that the mightiest of wars has vainly 
dashed against it and been shivered into spray. Proof to the tem- 
pest shock, our nationality need no longer dread the storm — force 
can not uproot it. But the pestilence that wasteth at noon-day — 
what shall be said of that? Corruption, with its stealthy creep, its 
leprous touch, and its deadly breath — corruption which has rotted and 
wasted so many fair fabrics — will that mark us for destruction too, as 
the sea bird blasts the tree on which he builds his nest? The times 
are too murky to forecast this question ; it must be hammered out 
of the anvil of the future. It is not a question for the battle-field, 
it must be answered every day, and, most of all, election day. It 
concerns politics and political parties. Courts, Congresses, Legisla- 
tures, City governments — all these are the public agencies, but 
what they are, and what they do, depends at first and at last on 
elections. Everything in public affairs comes from the ballot box. 
Every reform must be upheld by the ballot box, or it is a tree 
without roots. 

Crying, flagrant, dangerous abuses, challenge attention in this 
great State, through all its length and breadth. Reforms, if attain- 
able at all, must come through one of the two political parties. For- 
tunately, or otherwise, we must make choice between the two great 
organizations, into which the whole country has long been divided. 
One, or the other, is to govern us; there is no alternative. Which 
is the safer to trust ? That is the question. 



^ 3 

ELECTIONS OF 1871— WHAT THEY PEOVE. 

Since March, this question has been answered in several widely- 
separated States, and in every one an impressive increase of voices 
has pronounced against the Democratic party. 

Connecticut, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maine, California, Mon- 
tana, Wyoming, Colorado, and now Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, 
all have voted within the last few months, and in every one the Re- 
publican party has been strengthened bj' great gains. Texas may 
or may not prove an exception. 

New Hampshire, given away last winter by Republicans, seemed 
like a Democratic victory, and relying upon defection among us 
in other States, our opponents told us a "tidal wave" had risen, 
which would lift their stranded ship, and bear it to triumph in the 
nation. Bat tides are mysterious things, and politicians are not 
mariners. Beguiled by a freshet, they were all unconscious that in 
the hearts and judgments of men a tide was rising, which would 
sweep westward from Maine over prairies and mountains, and drown 
out Democracy even on the golden fields of California. 

In recent elections, the canvass has turned sometimes wholly on 
National issues, and these alone have changed communities from 
Democracy to Republicanism. In California, for example, the two 
parties held the same position upon the two only leading local top- 
ics — railway grants and the Chinese — and the change in our favor 
was fifteen thousand. In all cases the elections this season have 
been a fair measure of the strength of parties, and the result proves 
that the nation confides more and more in the administration of 
General Grant. 

Other States have passed upon matters general and interesting to 
them — we have matters special to us. 

WHAT THIS ELECTION WILL DECIDE. 

Both Houses of our Legislature are to be chosen, and also memberi 
of the Canal and Prison Boards ; and these bodies, acting for nearly 
five million people, are to deal with affairs more grave than these 
bodies ever dealt with before. 

The incoming Legislature will create, for ten years, the districts 
from which Representatives in Congress will be chosen. The State 
may be fairly divided, or to change and pervert results it may be 
gerrymandered and zigzagged till a Tammany Indian would be puz- 
zled by the trail 



4 

The Senate to be chosen now, will participate in appointing a Sen- 
ator of the United States. 

These are matters of importance, but they are less grave than 
other things which the next Legislature will have in charge. 

VIOLATIONS OF THE BALLOT BOX. 

In front of all questions pending in the State of New York now, 
is the integrity of elections. This question underlies all others, be- 
cause it involves all others. If elections can not be real and honest, 
the majority can not rule, and then self-government and public lib- 
erty are gone. Are elections in this State real now? Have they 
been honest of late years ? When I say real and honest, I mean 
has every elector enjoyed the right to vote once and only once, and 
to have his vote and all others honestly counted and returned? 

No one, candid and informed, will deny that on Manhattan Island 
elections have long been worse than a sham. False voting and false 
counting decide every contest. 

This would be frightful if the usurpation subjugated only the 
million people in the city of New York. But the State is trampled 
down by pirates of the ballot box in the metropolis, and nearly five 
million people are subjugated to their sway. 

No matter what majorities roll up where the green grass grows, 
the Russ pavement overtops them with false majorities swollen to 
suit the occasion. The gigantic frauds which now convulse New 
York, disgrace the nation, and amaze the world, could never have 
been perpetrated without the villainy which counted John T. Hoff- 
man into the office of Governor, to which John A. Griswold was 
elected, and which seated men in the Legislature in defiance of the 
votes of their constituents. 

To break up this monstrous system, Congress last year passed 
an act which laid hold upon it. It was an impartial act. It pro- 
vided for a scrutiny of the registers to detect repeaters, and for safe- 
guards against false counts. It would have purged New York of 
much iniquity. Tweed and Hall could not repeal it — they do not 
"run" Congress yet — so they set themselves about out-witting and 
circumventing the law of the land. We had a State statute requir- 
ing registration in New York — the strongest barrier the State had 
raised against utter prostitution of the ballot. The act of Con- 
gress was based in part on this statute and the act would be palsied 
to some extent, should the statute be taken away. This, therefore, 
was one of the enormities perpetrated last winter by a legislative 



majority obtained by fraud, and recruited by bribery. Nothing, per- 
haps, more clearly exposes the dominion of the Tammany cabal, 
and the Tammany taint in the Democratic party, than the fact that 
the Convention at Rochester has just virtually endorsed this dishon- 
est overthrow of the Registry law, and declared against its re- 
enactment. The 18th of April, 1871, should be ever memora- 
ble in the calendar of party rascality. On this day the bandits 
whose firm name is Tammay Hall, carried through the Legislature, 
and a Democratic Governor afterwards signed, five bills, which, 
with a sixth, passed the day after, constitute a batch of laws to which 
no generation of Englishmen would have submitted since they cut 
off Charles 1 head. One of these enactments virtually struck down 
the Registry Law, and gave into the hands of Hall and his agents 
the whole machinery of elections and results. 

This wrong, just varnished by the Rochester Convention, must be 
undone — this repealing act must be repealed — the bulwarks round 
the ballot box must be made stouter than before. Unless this be 
done, you do not rule yourselves ; knaves and repeaters rale you. 
If elections can not be preserved in one city or State, they can 
not be preserved in another; and when elections fail, our whole 
system fails, and the government which a million bayonets could not 
destroy, and which a sea of blood has ransomed, will crumble 
in the presence of an inert and degenerate people. 

BRIBERY. 

Next in enormity to stuffing the ballot-box with illegal votes, and 
then stifling its voice by false counts, is bribery at the polls and in 
legislative bodies. This practice, too, we blush to know, has its great 
source and centre in New York. The Legislature of New York 
alone can uproot it. 

The tax levies for the city annually passed at Albany, furnish 
corruption funds to debauch elections not only on Manhattan Island, 
but throughout the State, and beyond the State. Connecticut, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and even more distant regions, are theatres 
whereon Tammany enacts its drama of profligacy. It bribes and 
seduces many presses and many men — not Democrats alone, far 
from it — not the needy and the despised a.lone, but the higlvheaded, 
the pretentious, and demure. 

All this broad-spreading iniquity, is to receive a death-blow, or a 
new lease of life at the hands of the next Senate and Assemblj'. 

Are not these grave and weighty matters? But they are not all. 



6 

RECENT VICIOUS LEGISLATION, AND ITS EFFECTS. 

The last two winters have inscribed on our statue book other en- 
actments full of vice. The charter of New York and other cognate 
acts, have enabled a horde of acute, bad men to grasp by the throat 
the greatest community in the western world. They have intrenched 
themselves on every side. They have muzzled and subsidized news- 
papers with useless corporation advertisements. They have main- 
tained multitudes of retainers in sinecures with lavish pay, and every 
avenue swarms with their open and secret agents. They have 
intimidated the rich with the fear of exorbitant assessments and 
taxes; they have allured the needy and rapacious with gold and 
with advantage. The indignant have been marvelousl/soothed 
and respectibility has been made to pay tribute to them, and even to 
whitewash their iniquities. They have made it safe and profitable 
to be with them, and dangerous and costly to be against them They 
have set up and pulled down men, not only in the Democratic party 
but a part.zan police, a licentious press, an army of hirelings and 
abbettors on both sides, and other instrumentalities viler still" have 
been employed to punish and destroy republicans they could not 
buy, to exalt republicans who were accomplices with them, and to 
debauch and control the committees and conventions of their politi- 
cal opponents. 

NEW YORK CITY. 

Look at the crimes of this great conspiracy against society. Look 
at the city of New York. In many respects it is the proudest city 
m the world. When we consider its geographical position, its 
colossal trade, its unequaled activities, its generous charities, its 
temples of learning and religion, its civilization and advancement, 
its unexampled growth, and its magnificent destiny, where shall we 
find compassed in the same space more to evoke the sympathy and 
admiration of mankind. 

Yet all this is a prey to remorseless spoilers. Its streets reek with 
filth, yet fabulous expense maintains and cleans them. Its high- 
ways and byways breed sin and crime, yet officials loiter on every 
crossing. Police commissioners, and captains, and courts, attended by 
retinues, which no man can number, are paid for guarding life and 
property, yet the most daring offences go unwhipt till public ven- 
geance demand an example. 

Justice has been made a commodity, and the Judiciary has sunk 
fo low, that a continent was electrified when Judge Barnard, pluck- 



ing the ermine from the dust, sent forth his injunction order to stay 
the most stupendous robbery of recorded time. 

Elections are an insulting mockery, and official returns of votes — 
records of the peoples' will — vouchers and warrants, the highest and 
most solemn known to us, next to the Constitution itself, are but 
forgeries of thimble-riggers, and the sport of those who jeer at de- 
cency. 

Commerce is driven from our wharves, because our harbor is a 
field for rapacious extortion carried on by State officials. In the 
nameof quarantine, wholesome traffic stands waiting at our gates, 
while in the name of health, contagion enters with tribute in its 
hand. 

The London Times cautions the world against the harbor of New 
York with its ruinous exactions, and the health office floats like a 
gilded buoy, warning the ships of all nations to keep aloof, and steer 
for ports in other States, or in the British Provinces. 

Liberties and rights respected in foreign cities, find no sanctuary 
here. In Catholic Dublin and Cork, men and women can parade on 
Protestant anniversary, but in New York they are officially ordered 
from the streets, in words inciting other sects to riot ; and then at the 
belated behest of a Governor, the military shoot down the deluded 
victims of religious zeal, whom an abject Police Board and a era van 
mayor have lured and bated to their fate. 

Monstrous taxes are laid on property, and rung from toil, to bribe 
legislators and electors, and to fatten the gluttony, and support the 
pomp and splendor of men who outshine kings in luxury. 

Is there in the book of time, such a picture as has been given to 
the world by the courage and genius of the New York Times? 
Was there ever theft so huge? It is the grandest of grand larcen- 
ies. It dizzies arithmetic and bankrupts figures. Warren Hast- 
ings in India — conquerors, proconsuls and satraps — cities sacked, 
and provinces wasted — these are dwarfish and petty now. 

The debt of the city is said to be about one hundred millions. 
More than sixty million has been created within less than three years. 
This mortgages every foot of land from Spuyten Duyvel to the 
Battery for more than one-tenth of its valuation. The same rate of 
expenditure continued for a while, would have bankrupted and evis- 
erated the county of New York. But better in the end than the 
money itself, would it be to know what has become of it. We 
know about a part of it, but not the worst part. Some of it has 
been appropriated by individuals to enrich themselves, and this is 
probably the least guilty use that has been made of it. 



8' 

THE GREAT SACHEM, AND OTHERS. 

There is one Tammany sacliem who makes Albany glorious in 
winter, and whose sumptuous apartments at the Delavan House 
have been the scene of events so rare and mixed and varied, as to 
show that party lines make no partitions or divisions there; save par- 
titions and divisions of the common benefits. This practical man, 
and patron of practical men irrespective of party, was, as the rec- 
ord shows, discharged under the two-third act as an insolvent debtor 
only ten years ago. His assignment for the benefit of his creditors 
bears date October 5, 1861. He was then worth not so much as 
his debts, and his creditors satisfied of his insolvency, consented 
that he make over such property as he owned, and have receipt in 
full. Since this discharge we are told he has been in no business, 
yet he is said now to be the largest owner of real estate on Man- 
hatten Island, except William B. Astor ; and personal property 
swells by millions his overrunning wealth. 

These fortunate accumulations show him to be saving, yet he is 
no miser ; may, he has been known to give, from charity, to the poor 
of a single ward, fifty thousand dollars. 

Beginning at home, as all true charity does, the bread he casts 
upon the waters returns to him even on wedding days. Diamonds 
for shoe buttons, and blazing gems which half a million would 
not buy, are said to be the reflex of the bounties he dispenses. 
Coesar's head was stamped upon a penny, but this ruler's face born 
on medalions of precious metal for the Metropolitan Hotel, is it 
seems, to adorn the table service from which the Democracy will 
feed, while they see before them in profile, "the very age and body 
of the time." 

This man, aided by a confederate of less energy, bat more reflec- 
tion than himself, has for two years, at least, been the master and 
power of the Democratic party — and he is so still. He may have 
received more money than others, but others have been fortunate. 

A transfer of half a million bonds to a son-in-law, does not sug- 
gest improvident paternal provision, because we read of three and 
a half million of like bonds remaining after the transfer has been 
made. All who came in on the "ground floor," seem to have se- 
cured more than a competence. 

MAYOR HALL. 

Poverty is said not to be surely among the uncounted graces even 
of the mayor. It is consoling to believe that he will still be able 
"to dazzle and dismay" in new suits of green, and to resume at 



9 

leisure those sabbath day contributions to the literature of the Re- 
publican party, which have been interrupted of late by other "min- 
isterial" duties, but which, now receive the acknowledgment of 
those he has decorated with his vituperation, and never aspersed by 
his praise. 

Should this world's goods ever prove scant, he will yet be rich in 
a more precious treasure. That matchless artist Nast, has rendered 
him immortal, and prepared for him a tabernacle "on fames eternal 
camping ground." There he may "steal awhile away." 

Dismissing the millions absorbed by officials, where are the other 
missing tens of millions? 

CITY ACCOUNTS. 

In form, fabulous sums are represented in false accounts, for plas- 
tering, carpets, curtains, furniture, repairs, armories, and other ficti- 
tious items. The Secretary of the Interior, a very competent au- 
thority, has taken the pains to analize and contrast some of these 
accounts. He says : 

Here was paid a larger sum for repairs, carpets, and furniture for county offices 
than the present Administration paid, in the same year, for mail transportation 
throughout the United States ; nearly three times as much as the entire diplomatic 
expenses for two years past ; as much as the yearly cost of collecting the customs 
revenue ; more than all the miscellaneous expenditures of the Interior Depart- 
ment for either year of the present Administration, and more than the entire 
annual expenses of the Indian Bureau. Here is a larger sum paid in eleven 
months for plastering than the entire expense of the United States for foreign In- 
tercourse during the present Administration ; and more for plumbing and gas- 
fitting, iu one year, than the expenses attending all the public buildings and 
grounds in Washington city. There was paid more money to three men for such 
expenditures, in one year, tiian was paid for the collection of the entire internal 
revenue of the country in any year of the present Administration; more than 
double the expense of the United States courts for two years, and more than all 
the expenses of the Forty-first Congress. 

The ace mnts he refers to have these items among others : 

Ingersoll & Co., for carpenter work and furniture in Court House 
and armories, during 1869 and 1S70, $5,63 1,114.26. 

Andrew J. Grarvey, for plastering in Court House, jail, and armo- 
ries, in two years, $2,905,401.06. 

Keyser & Co., for plumbing and gas-fitting in the Court House 
and armories, in less than three years, $1,231,817.72. 

The new Court House is not completed, and has cost already up- 
ward of $12,000,0)0. 

In Brooklyn, between 1861 and 1865 (when prices were higher) 
a Court House was erected nearly as large, and quite similar in char- 



10 

acter and material. The Brooklyn Court House cost $551,758.28, 
and repairs and furniture, up to the present added, the cost is $745,- 
601.54. The unfinished New York Court House has cost already 
sixteen times as much. Woodwork charged at more than two million 
dollars, is not worth more than thirty thousand dollars. Furniture 
charged at a million and a half, is not worth seventy -five thousand 
dollars. " Carpets, shades, and curtains" are charged at $675,534.44 ; 
there is not a curtain in the building, and the carpets and shades can 
not have cost seventeen thousand dollars. Plastering charged at over 
a million, eight hundred thousand dollars, could not have cost thirty- 
five thousand dollars. Accounts for rent, stationery, printing, and 
other things are not less astounding. 

Such are the accounts audited by Tweed, Hall, and Connolly, 
sitting sometimes with and sometimes without others ; over six mil- 
lions having been passed at a single sitting. The money was paid 
on the signature of Mayor Hall. 

Does any man believe that those who presented these preposterous 
demands actually received the money, and were permitted to keep it ? 

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE MONEY ? 

No one believes it. Then what became of these and other yet 
vaster sums ? 

See what the Albany Argus, the Democratic State paper, says. 
Here are its words : 

A Radical editor recently icent through the New York Court House, and asked, 
where is all this plastering, all this furniture ? We can tell him. The hands of 
Radical politicians at Albany had to be plastered annually before the New York 
tax-levy could become a lain. To one man, a saint of St. Lawrence, sixty thousand 
dollars had to be paid ; to another, a white nccl-clothxl scoundrel from Madison, a 
mm nearly as gnat. G army's plaster whitens walls and fertilizes farms in the west 
of the State. Ingersoll's furniture decks respectable mansions in the interior, and 
the neighbors tconder how the wealth and taste of the owner were so suddenly devel- 
oped. 

" Does any one suppose that the old Republican firm of plumbers, the Keysers, 
were let off with furnishing a New York Court House ? No ; their lead pipe ran 
into Herkimer, and tapped the politics of Montgomery. Indeed, the sewerage of 
Cayuga and Chatanqua, it is believed, found their machinery and equipment at 
this good old Radical establishment !" 

Is this true ? The Argus is the organ of a great party, and is con- 
ducted by men of judgment, who live at the capital, and seem to 
speak from personal knowledge. 

Shall it not be investigated ? Who shall investigate ? The' hon- 
est men on both sides in the city are moving, and never was there a 



11 

more righteous indignation since the money changers were scourged 
from the temple. But citizen committees alone can not go to the 
bottom of all this — the Legislature is needed, and hence I conjure 
you to ponder the gravity of this election. 

Will a Democratic legislature, with Democratic State officers re- 
elected, investigate and avenge these wrongs? Will the Democratic 
Attorney-General, who for two years has sat with these men, and 
who has just been renominated by them over Charles O'Conor, inves- 
tigate them? Will any man investigate who holds place from a 
party whose State Convention has just succumbed to Tweed, and 
recognized Tammany LTall as the regular and only Democratic organ- 
ization in the city of New York? 

Bemember the infamies of last winter — the repeal of the Registry, 
the two per cent, act, and the other acts of that cluster, wicked enough 
to load their authors with opprobrium which the waters of forgetful- 
ness will roll over in vain. Every Democrat voted for these bills ; 
but one Republican fell, and his fall would have injured no one but 
himself had not the Executive veto slumbered, when the Executive 
hand might have strangled the whole brood. Was it for this 
that the Tammany Convention at Rochester has just endorsed the 
Governor in the most swelling phrases, commending him especially 
for the way he has managed the veto power? 

TWO PER CENT. ACT. 

While Governor Hoffman meditated on the two per cent. Bill, 
America and England, presented strangely different spectacles. 
The two per cent. Bill, empowered Mr. Oakey Hall, Mr. Richard 
Connolly, Mr. William M. Tweed and Mr Peter B. Sweeny, to take 
tribute of the people of New York, not exceeding two per cent, of 
their property — that is to take upwards of twenty-one million dollars, 
upon their own ipse dixit, to do with it what they please, consulting 
no one, and accountable to no one. 

While this scheme was maturing, Mr. Lowe, the Chancellor of 
the British Exchequer, made up his budget. It was unusually large, 
almost as large as just after the battle of Waterloo. It was hard to 
find the requisite ways and means, and the expedient was hit upon of 
imposing a tax of one cent a box on friction matches. 

The spirit which sent the Barons to Runnymead, still makes 
Englishmen jealous of their rights, and the one cent tax on matches, 
met a protest so stubborn and vehement, that the Government was 
compelled promptly to withdraw it, and the withdrawal took place 



12 

almost simultaneously with the emission from the Executive Chamber 
at Albany, of a tax Bill more despotic than modern England ever 
knew. 

SECTARIAN APPROPRIATIONS. 

This same act, contains provisions touching sectarian appropria- 
tions, which display a genius, rare, if not solitary of its kind. The 
Democratic party had pledged itself that no more sectarian appro- 
priations should be made, and in this act is the redemption of the 
pledge. 

Section 6, provides that it shall not be lawful " to appropriate or 
appl} 7 any portion of the tax herein authorized to be raised, in aid 
of any private or sectarian school, or other institution or enterprise 
that is under the control of any religious denomination, or to bor- 
row any money on the faith or credit of the city to be applied to 
any such purpose, etc." This seems plain and straight forward so 
far, but later in the section, which is a long one, will be found these 
words, " nor shall said restriction prevent appropriations in aid of 
the following charites," and then follow by name, sixty-seven dif- 
ferent "institutions and enterprises," most of them of the kind in 
question. 

This seems like going up one step and falling down two, and it 
looked to me quite ingenious stopping here, and I thought I saw the 
whole of it. But reading on I found how little was my conception, 
of the versatility of our rulers. At the end of this windrow of 
sixty-seven beneficiaries, occur these quiet little words, " and the 
other institutions and societies now provided for by law, in regard 
to which said board (that is Hall, Connolly, Tweed, and Sweeny) 
may apportion such amounts respectively as they may, with refer- 
ence to other appropriations, deem practicable !" Lord Chesterfield 
said but one man ever saw through a millstone, and he saw through 
the hole. The hole here, is " not as wide as a church door, nor as 
deep as a well, but it is enough." 

TAMMANY AT THE ROCHESTER CONVENTION. 

These are some of the footprints of Tammany legislation, and in 
spite of all its crimes against honesty, in spite of all its shameless 
crimson iniquity, in spite of its detection and exposure, in spite 
of its having plundered the community and then laughed in its face, 
Tammany Hall yet rules the Democratic party. Tattooed from 
head to foot with accusations undenied, blistered and branded with 



13 

confessed betrayals of public trust, but unawed and unabashed, 
these astute managers went to Rochester, and met the State Conven- 
tion, and it was theirs. They demanded to be recognized not only 
as Democrats, but as the only regular Simon-pure Democratic organ- 
ization in the city of New York. Think of it, and think of the re- 
ception they met with. The State Committee voted three to one 
that they were the only apostles bearing the apostolic succession 
and thus annointed, the Tammany delegation next addressed the 
Convention itself. 

In a communication which will remain among the proudest archives 
of Democracy, after referring to their purity and regularity, they an- 
nounce that their course will be governed by solicitude for "the 
triumph of the cause of constitutional government!" Dickens 
would have said, " here's richness for you." They next refer to their 
demand that the charges made against them by the opposition press, 
shall be investigated, and then they waive participation in the Con- 
vention, thinking their so doing, may promote the success "of regu- 
lar Demcratic tickets, state and local." Mark that, there is meaning 
in it. 

Upon this, the Convention resolved that in the absence of Tam- 
many, no delegation from New York, could sit in the Convention, 
and the delegation headed by Charles O'Conor, was not allowed to 
go even before the committee on contested seats. Do you see the 
effect of all this? Tammany, clothed in fresh orthodoxy, embodies 
the whole party on Mahattan Island, where twenty-one members of 
Assembly, and six Senators are to be nominated, and these are the 
local tickets there. 

Tweed, is already renominated for the Senate, and he and his 
confederates are to nominate all the rest, under the imprimatur of 
the State Convention. In Kings county, and throughout the State, 
Tammany influence, so far from being shunned, is to be courted and 
deferred to. Add to this the nomination of the State ticket 
wanted by Tammany, and once counted in by Tamman} r , and no 
triumph could be more complete. 

The Convention did that which Mr. O'Conor, in his remarkable 
letter, warned them would inflict an incurable wound upon their 
party. It is well that it is so, for all men must see now that if re- 
form can be reached at all this year, it must be reached through the 
Republican party. 

So far I have spoken of work for the Legislature, but I referred 
to the State officers to be chosen to the Canal and Prison Boards. 



14 

DEMOCRATIC EXTRAVAGANCE IN THE STATE. 

Extravagance of expenditure is not confined to the municipal 
affairs of New York. You find it everywhere in Democratic manage- 
ment. 

EXECUTIVE OFFICES AT ALBANY. 

Take the expenses of the Executive Offices inAlbany, and com- 
pare a Republican with a Democratic year. 

In 1865 (Republican) these expenses were $476,893 65 

In 1870 ^Democratic) same items were $823,473 53 

Excess .-$346,579 88 

CANALS. 

Take the expenses of the canals. 

Expenses 1868, Republican management, $1,516,566 75 

Expenses 1870, Democratic management, $3,695,442 59 

Excess $2, 1 78,875 84 

The difference is not explained by the superior condition of the 
canals at one time over another. The official reports prove the con- 
trary. I say nothing now about the loss of revenue under Demo- 
cratic management. That raises the question of high tolls or low 
tolls, which is a wholly different matter. 

The canals can be honestly administrated whether the tolls be 

higher or lower, and the Republican party wages no war upon cheap 

and honest transportation, but is the advocate of it everywhere and 

always. 

PRISONS. 

Look at the management of the three prisons of the State, and see 
if you can escape the conclusion that extravagance goes with the 
Democracy even into prison. 

Here is a statement, dry in detail, but worth some study. 

Prison Management under the Republican Party, and under the Democratic 
Party Contrasted. 
Earnings and expenses of Auburn prison, for years ending September 30, 1863 
and 1833. Republican Administration. (The years 1883 and 1863 are takenas 
fair average years.) 

1863— Earnings $103,533 90 

Expenditures of every description . . <. . 88,403 35 

Average number of convicts in prison 860 

Average number on contract 744 

Average contract price per day 47 8-9 cts. 



15 

Auburn prison, year ending September 30, 18G3 : 

1803— Earnings $99,926 06 

Expenditures of all kinds 80,291 64 

Average nu mber in prison 772 

Average number on contract 671 

Average contract price 49 cts. 

Most of the shops were built or repaired and charged to the expenses of the 
prison, during the above two years. 

Auburn prison under Democratic management for the years 18G9 and 1870. 

1869— Earnings $128,681 89 

Expenditures 169,599 88 

Average number of convicts 950 

Average number of convicts on contract 755 

Average price on contract per day 53 

1870— Earnings $118,545 20 

Expsnditures 166,979 10 

Average number of convicts 935 

Average nnmber of convicts on contract 744 

Average price on contract per day 53 

Results at Auburn under Republican management for the years 1863 and 1863, 
compared with results for the years 1869 and 1870, under Democratic manage- 
ment : 

Republican, 1863 and 1863. 

Earnings for the above two years $202,447 96 

Expenditures of all kinds 174,698 99 



Profits $27,750 97 

Democratic, 1869 and 1870. 

Earnings for the above two years $247,227 09 

Expenses aside from appropriations 336,578 68 

Loss aside from appropriations $89,351 59 

Earnings and expenses of Sing Sing prison for yeara ending September 30, 
1803 and 1803 under Republican Administration : 

1863— Earnings $84,808 73 

Expenditures 130,022 31 

Average number of convicts iu prison 1,147 

Average number of convicts on contract 593 

Average price per day on contract 37 2-10 cts. 

1863— Earnings $86,637 35 

Expenditures 128,191 58 

Average number of convicts in prison 904 

Average number of convicts on contract 625 

Average price per day on contract 38 2-11 cts. 

Sing Sing prison for year ending 30th September, 1869, under Democratic Ad- 
ministration : 

1869— Earnings $225,614 75 

Expenditures 376,938 83 



16 

1 270 
Average number convicts in pnson *"»«» 

Average number on contract 

Average p>ice per day on contract °° "■' CL& - 

Remaining convicts work on stone, &c, for State. 

Sing Sing prison for year ending September 30, 1870, under Democratic Manage- 
ment : 

187 0_Earnings, deposited ^8,571 27 

Expenditures 384,45o 43 

Average number convicts in prison i* 180 

Average number on contract 5 ^ 8 

Average price per day on contract 42 78 cts - 

Remainder of convicts at marble works and State work. 

Results shown above for 1S62 and 1863, at Sing Sing prison, Republican; also 
years 1869 and 1870, under Democratic Management : 

Republican, for years 1863 and 1863. 

Earnings for above two jears $171,446 08 

Expenditures for same 258,213 82 

Loss in two years $87,767 74 

Democratic, for years 1869 and 1870. 

Earnings for above two year?, including amounts due earnings $394,186 02 

Expenditures 761,394 26 

Loss in two years $267,208 24 

This statement includes as earnings the amounts deposited, together with 
amounts claimed to be due at the end of the years. This is favorable to those re- 
sponsible, and the reports so blend items arising under contracts, with those per- 
taining to manufacturing for the State, that the accounts can not be correctly given 
otherwise. These losses are in truth much larger than they appear because of 
special and direct appropriations by the State for prison expenses of which no 
note is made in the accounts. 

Earnings and expenses of Clinton prison for the years ending September 30, 
1832 and 1863 under Republican Administration : 

1832— Earnings $41,146 88 

Expenditures 63,535 90 

Average number of convicts in prison 497 

Average number on contract 364 

Average price per day on contract 35 3 10 cts. 

1833— Earnings $41,767 33 

Expenditures 64,694 51 

Average number of convicts in prison 434 

Average number on contract 328 

Average price per day on contract. 41 9-10 cts. 

Clinton prison for the years ending September 30. 1869 and 1870 under "Demo- 
cratic Management," the State carrying on the manufacture of iron and nails. 

1869— Earnings deposited $158,807 56 

Expenditures 317,309 70 



17 

Average number of convicts 503 

1870— Earnings deposited $214,769 45 

Expenditures 305,905 08 

Average number of convicts in prison 487 

Results as given for 1862 and 1803, at Clinton prison, Republican, compared with 
results for 1869 and 1870, under Democratic, Management : 

Republican, for the years 1862 and 1863. 

Earnings for the above two years $82,914 21 

Expenditures for the same time 128,280 40 



Loss in two years $45,366 19 

Democratic, for the years 1809 and 1870. 

Earnings as deposited for the above two years $373,577 01 

Expenditures for the same lime 623,214 78 



Loss in two years $219,037 77 

In addition to these losses, large appropriations for this prison have been made 
by the State. In producing the " earnings," the convicts use iron ore raised from 
the'_State's grounds, and wood for charcoal and fuel, for which latter article the 
State appropriated $80,000, in the year 1868. No account is taken of these things 
in the expenses given. 

Gains and losses of the prisons for the years 1862 and 1863, under Republican 
Administration, together with losses, under Democratic Administration in the 
years 1869 and 1870 : 

Years 1862 and 1363. 

Prisons. Gains. Losses. 

Auburn $27,750 97 $ 



SingSing 86,767 74 

Clinton, including all buildings and repairs 45,366 19 



$132,133 93 
Deduct Auburn gains 27,750 97 



Losses of the the three prisons during two years $104,382 96 

This was during two years of the war, with consumption at war prices. The 
number of convicts was small, and their labor contracted at prices less than those 
appearing in the following statement : 

The same prisons, for the years 1869 and 1870, under Democratic Administra- 
tion : 

Gains. Losses. 

Auburn % $89,351 59 

SingSing 367,208 24 

Clinton 249,637 



77 



$706,197 60 
Most of the buildings and repairs are now made by appropriation by the Legis- 
lature, not taken into the account nor charged on prison books as expenses. Tat' 

2 



18 



contracts were let at higher prices during the last years. If appropriations for 
repairs, &c. were added for the years 1869 and 1870, the losses would appear 
much larger. (See appropriations appended.) PP 

Appropriations made by the Legislature to the Auburn prison for 

the years 1862 and 1863 

$26,850 00 

Before these special appropriations began, repairs were made out of earn 
mgB as part of current expenses. In 1860, for example, at Auburn new roofs 
were put on several buildings, a shoe shop was erected, and additions aftlrw^d 
made, and all without appropriations. wara 

Appropriations made by the Legislature for the Sing Sing prison 
for the years 1862 and 1863... b P ' 

Appropriations for Sing Sing prison for thenars 1869 and i 8 70." WW S 

Appropriations made by the Legislature to the Clinton prison dur ' ' 
ing tne years 1862 and 1863 

Clinton prison for the years 1869 and 1870 oi M!™ °? 

-slo,500 00 

In addition to this, the Legislature/in 1868, appropriated $80,000 for woodlands 
^ZZZ™:^r™ Uaa thG ° refr0m —- d^eithJ 

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION. 

Having gone over the record of the Democrats, till we have come 
to prisons let us leave them there, while we go abroad in the land 
and see what account a Eepublican administration can give of its 
stewardship. s 

In his Inaugural, President Grant gave this pledge to the Ameri- 

SthT ii 7\r ]l bem ^ ende — to execute 111 laws in good 
taitn, to collect all revenues assessed, and to have them promptly 
accounted for and economically disbursed." 

I begin by inquiring how this gage has been kept, and we must 
compare the work with the work which preceded it, 

COLLECTION OF INTERNAL REVENUE. 

In 1868 under Andrew Johnson, the internal revenue accounted 
for was $191,180,564.28. Then the tax on spirits was $2 per gal 

was 9 and'/V " T '° ^ *** P ° Und ' the ta * on co "on 
was 2 2 and o cents per pound ; and iron, furniture, clothing, and nearly 
every visible object, was taxed. Y 

With the present administration, a new tax bill came in. The tax 
on spirits was reduced from $2 to 50 cents per gallon ; the tax on 
tobacco from 40 cents to 32 cents and 16 cents ; and cotton, lo" 



19 

boots and shoes, clothing, furniture, leather, machinery, soap, sugar, 
and more than one hundred other articles were made wholly free. 
This reduction amounted to $78,000,000. 

On the reducted basis, the internal revenue ac- 
counted for during the first twelve months of 
President Grant was $177,457,738 29 

During his first fiscal year, it was 185,285,867 97 

In 1868 spirits at $2 per gallon }'ielded, for the fis- 
cal year, 1S,000,000 00 

In Grant's first fiscal year, at 50 cents, it yielded 55,000,000 00 



Increase, despite reduction, $37,000,000 00 

Tobacco under Johnson, at 40 cents, yielded annu- 
ally, .' 18,000,000 00 

Under Grant, at 22 cents, (average,) 31,000,000 00 

Increase, despite reduction, $13,000,000 00 

EXPENSES OF COLLECTING INTERNAL REVENUE. 

1868, under Johnson, expenses of Internal Revenue 
Bureau, $8,387,793 17 

First fiscal year of Grant, _ 5,916,410 22 

Saving, $2,471,382 95 

COLLECTION OF CUSTOMS' REVENUE. 

Since Gen. Grant came in, the reduction of the 

Tariff duties has been (for a year) $29,526,409 09 

From March 1st, 1867 to March 1st, 1869, two years 

under Johnson, Customs accounted for, were.. 298,452,940 07 

From March 1st, 1869, to March 1st, 1871, two years 

under Grant, they were 353,855,167 74 

Net increase, despite reduction, $55,402,227 67 

If we add the amounts dismissed by the new tariff, 
which took effect January 1, '71 — 1-4 of a year, 
(Jan. 1, '71, to March 1.) we have, beside the 
above, say, 8,000,000 00 

Making an increase of $63,402,227 67 



20 
REDUCTION OF TAXES. 

Since 1865, Congress (usually against a solid vote 
of the Democratic members) has reduced taxes 
in all, $251,848,827 33 

Reduction, during administration of Gen. Grant, is, 

Internal taxes, (annually), 55,212,000 00 

Tariff, (annually,) . 29,526,409 09 

$84,738,409 09 

Despite these reductions, the increase of revenue 
accounted for under Gen. Grant, over the same 
period preceding is, $84,994,049 74 

ALLEGED DEFALCATIONS OF INTERNAL REVENUE 

COLLECTORS. 

I am reminded at this point of an allegation which needs to be 
set right. The Democratic Congressional address, issued in March 
last, asserts that twenty-five million dollars has been lost to the 
Government by defaulting collectors of Internal Revenue, and this 
charge has resounded through every recent canvass east and west. 

Now for the facts. Here is an official statement from the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury and the Controller of the Treasury, dated Aug. 
15, 1871, giving the full particulars. From this it appears, that, on 
the 15th of August last, the account of debits against Internal Rev- 
enue Collectors, beginning with 1861, the commencement of Inter- 
nal taxes, was as follows : 



Amounts due from collectors, $2,750,126 39 

Amounts unadjusted, 424,112 36 

Arrearages of every kind, $3,174,238 78 

Three million is not twenty-five million ; but the three million 
is an apparent and not a real default, only a small part of it is 
a blamable deficit. You are aware that the law requires Collectors 
to receipt each month to the Assessor, the full amount of the tax 
roll, and these full amounts are at once charged against the Collector 
at the Treasury, and remains so charged till collected, or expunged, 
as uncollectable. The Assessors' tax rolls continually contain taxes 
which can not be collected, and thus each Collector has always more 



21 

or less of items charged against him, which he is not to pay, or be 
held responsible for, after he has done his duty in striving to collect 
them. When a Collector dies, resigns, or goes out of office, large 
apparent balances stand against him, and linger along on the books, 
when in truth he owes nothing, and has rendered up every cent. 

So much for the amount due from defaulting collectors ; but who 
are these alleged defaulters ? Who appointed them, that they should 
be laid at the door of General Grant ? 

The total number of collectors against whom balances appear is 
174. ' Of these Mr. Lincoln appointed 83, Mr. Johnson appointed 83, 
and Gen. Grant appointed 8. 

The ballance appearing against them are as follows : 



Against Collectors appointed by Mr. Lincoln $890,058 95 

Against Collectors appointed by Mr. Johnson 1,813,756 12 

Against Collectors appointed by Gen. Grant 61,581 76 



This statement requires one qualification to make it exact and 
just. Joshua F. Bailey was appointed by Mr. Lincoln, but he was 
re-appointed by General Grant, and placed in the thirty-second dis- 
trict of New York, and his default related as well to his term of 
office under Mr. Lincoln as to that under, ^General Grant — the line 
between them can not be drawn. 

Does this exhibit reflect discredit on'the present administration ? 
It shows a thoroughness and rigor of omcial^accountability, without 
a parellel in American history. 

I have SDoken of the integrity with which the revenue has been 
collected, may I ask your attention to the honesty and frugality with 
which it has been applied. Here again we must judge by com- 
parisons. 

EXPENSES OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT CON- 
TRASTED. 

From March 1st., 1867, to March 1st., 1869, two years, 

under Johnson, total expense account was $150,013,759 17 

From March 1st, 1869, to March 1st,, 1871, two 

years, under Grant, same account was 323,312,809 96 



Decrease of expense $126,700,919 21 



22 
REDUCTION OF DEBT CONTRASTED. 

During the two last years of Mr. Johnson, with a 
much greater basis of taxation, the debt was re- 
duced only $26,441,986 00 

Under General Grant, on reduced basis of taxation, 
up to Oct. 1st., 1871, two years and seven 
months, amount of debt paid 254,799,319 68 

Some one curious in arithmetic, has been at the pains of working 
out the following results of figures as they stood some time ago. 

National Debt — Republican Management. 

Debt, December, 1869, \ 2,453,569,735 23 

Debt, May, 1871, 2,303,575,543 00 

Decrease in 28 months, 149,984,192 23 

Decrease per month, 4,335,578 79 

Decrease per week, 1,234,437 79 

Decrease per day, 176,457 99 

Decrease per hour, 7,352 1 7 

Decrease per minute, 121 54 

Decrease per second, 2 04-| 

Debt per head, 1869, 64 57 

Debt per head, 1871, 54 00 

Decrease per head, $10 00 

New York City Debt — Tammany Management. 

Debt, December, 1869, $29,324,949 82 

Debt, May, 1871, 81,843,515 00 

Increase in 28 months, 52,518,565 18 

Increase per month, 1,875,663 08 

Increase per week, 432,251 55 

Increase per day, 61,786 55 

Increase per hour, 2,574 44 

Increase per minute, 42 81 

Increase per second, 7 00, 

Debt per head, 1869, 32 58 

Debt per head, 1871, 86 15 

Increase per head, $53 57 



23 

Since General Grant came in, month by month, ascertain as the 
footfalls of time, so many millions have been lopped off from the 
debt the rebellion brought upon us. More than a million a month 
of interest, has been wiped out for ever, and the same administration 
continued, would pay the last farthing of principal in eighteen years. 
This is the debt which only two years ago the Democrats said 
could never be paid, and which their national convention proposed 
to dishonor, and virtually repudiate. 

STANDING OF OUR SECURITIES. 

In March, 1869, United States 6 per cent, gold bonds were thir- 
teen per cent, below par in gold ; in July, 1868, they were twenty 
per cent, below par. In March, 1871, they commanded a premium 
above par in gold. In March, 1869, gold stood at 132. In March, 
1871, and since, gold ranges from 112 to 116, and bonds range 
higher. 

The capitalists of Europe eagerly seek our five per cents, now, so 
eagerly, that we will not sell them as many as they want, and this 
with France in the market borrowing at great rates all she can lay 
hands on, and other borrowers competing with us. $200,000,000 six 
per cent, bonds have been called in by placing the amount in five 
per cent, bonds, and this one transaction saves $21,000,000 net, even 
supposing these five per cents, are to be paid in ten years — if they 
run twenty years the saving will be $18,000,000. 

Compare all this with Tammany financial management. Nay, 
compare it with Democratic management wherever you can find it. 

DEMOCRATIC MANAGEMENT ELSEWHERE. 

Go to Kentucky — there supreme Democracy still holds high car- 
nival. In the city of Louisville taxes have risen in eight years from. 
$373,557 to $1,386,013, and in the State generally the increase is 
striking. Increase of population does not explain it, because taxa- 
ton has risen per capita ; in Louisville, for example/it has risen in ten 
years from $8.50 per capita to $17. 

FURTHER REDUCTION OF TAXES. 

So satisfactory is the balance sheet of the nation, that at the next 
session of Congress, taxes and tariff, will be still farther largely re- 
duced ; forty million at least can be dismissed, and if our opponents 



24 

think we have not gone fast enough in striking off taxes, it may 
quiet them to remember that had the Democratic party submitted to 
the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, there would be no taxes to re- 
duce or to pay now. But one-half of the Democratic party, with 
the sympathy of the leaders of the other half, disputed that election 
by force, and involved us in a cruel war, which burdened the land 
with taxes and covered it with mourning. 

No statement of even the financial results of the national admin- 
istration would be complete without referring to its Indian policy. 
In place of the Indian wars, better described as contractors' wars, 
which have heretofore reddened our frontier, we have had two 
years of peace on the borders, and a policy commendable alike for 
its humanity and its frugality. 

THE SOUTH. 

In the south prosperity prevails, in so far as the Executive Gov- 
ernment can confer it. The blacks are prospering, and their agricul- 
tural societies and other indications show them rapidly emerging 
from the degradation to which generations of servitude had reduced 
them. That much disquiet and demoralization should prevail at the 
close of a great rebellion which prostrated all civil government, is a 
thing of course. Disturbing elements are at work there. The old 
Democratic State rights element is as busy as a Saint Vitus' danca 
" The resolutions of '98 " won't be still. Jefferson Davis is loose, 
owing partly to his not being hanged. He, and the rest like him, 
all vote ; but he and a few others who cheated the gallows, can not 
hold office until their disabilities are removed. 

Great wrath is poured out by Democrats, and by some not calling 
themselves Democrats, upon carpet-baggers. There are a great 
many carpet-baggers, and they are not all in the south ; but the south- 
ern carpet-baggers have one thing in their favor. Most of them 
went there with knapsacks on their backs— all but rebels were glad to 
have them go, and most all but rebels are disposed to let them do as 
they please about coming back again. 

If improper men are elected to office in Southern States, it is the 
fault of the people — they all vote, rebels and all. Their case isn't 
as hard as ours by half. Improper men hold elective positions here, 
too, and the worst of it is they were not even elected — fraud counted 
them in, and yet we submit to it. 

A certain class of educators in the south are trying the efficacy of 
shooting, burning, and whipping their former slaves, and others 



25 

whose politics do not suit them, and our opponents are sorely exer- 
cised because at the last session, Congress passed an act authorizing 
the President to chastise the murderous Ku Klux bands unless they 
subside. 

It is hardly to be feared, however, that many people in the north 
can be mystified by this attempt to enlist sympathy for men who 
are walking monuments of the mercy of the American people. We 
are told the act is unconstitutional. Most acts of late years have 
been unconstitutional in the estimation of our critics. If this act 
violates the Constituion, we may safely trust the Courts to find it out 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 

Turning from affairs at home, how are our affairs with foreign 
nations ? 

With Canada and Cuba both at our doors, and with exciting 
complications touching both, peace and dignity have been firmly 
maintained. 

With Great Britain, a treaty has been concluded, which, in some 
respects, is the very best example of civilized and Christian interna- 
tionally. 

The adminstration found pending between the two countries, a 
groupe of large and dangerous questions. Some of them, the San 
Juan boundary, for example, had baffled the diplomacy of several 
administrations, and had more than once gone almost to the point 
of war. 

The Johnson-Clarendon Convention had undertaken to compose 
the so-called Alabama claims, and the nation had rejected the pro- 
posed terms with the indignation of a people who remembered that 
mid-ocean had been lighted up by the flames of our unarmed ships 
burned by British pirates. This left the affair in a critical and 
feverish predicament on both sides. The Fisheries, Trade with the 
British provinces, and the Navigation of the St, Lawrence, had all 
given rise to open and hazardous controversies. 

All of these subjects were carefully considered by commissioners 
from the two countries sitting in our own capital, and all were dis- 
posed of in our treaty, by being removed into the domain of truth 
and reason, there to be settled upon principles of right and justice. 

Upon this transcendent act of peace, the American, and the Eng- 
lish people, after hearing the objectors in both countries, have set 
the seal of their hearty approbation. Tf the event stood alone, it 



26 

would be sufficient to render any administration illustrious, compos- 
ing, as it does, a great matter, and adding to the estimation in which 
we are held by the nations of the earth. 

Looking then far and near, we see our country stronger at home 
and abroad ; far stronger than ever before. Survey the whole hori- 
zon, and say who that advocated the Eepublican cause two years 
ago dared predict all this. With a land covering the temperate zone 
from sea to sea, with inestimable agricultural and mineral resources, 
with a people whose inventive genius and progress have outstripped 
competition, with military power which the world has witnessed, with 
commanding credit in all the capitals and money centres of the earth, 
with freedom and equal rights for all men and all religions, and with 
institutions which have proved their power to crush rebellion, if 
America be but true to herself, her manifest destiny is absolute 
primacy in Christendom. 

"What more could political action do, than has been done ? What 
is there that would please every politician, and insure every candi- 
date for the Presidency, ultimate success ? Whoever discovers this 
philosophers stone may be able to temper the pernicious practice 
of rancorous and truthless assault upon public men, which now 
denies the American press, and deserves to rank among the most 
baneful brutalities of progress. 

DEMOCRATIC CAVILINGS. 

Our opponents have counter plans, or at least criticisms. What 
are they ? 

They complain because the moment we struck the arms from 
their hands, we did not and could not give complete repose and 
prosperity to the communities of the South. This is no better than 
a wail against destiny. No people scourged by a lasting war, was 
ever made whole the day or the year after. 

But the ringleaders of Rebellion, who having sworn to uphold 
their Government, committed perjury as well as treason, were not 
all at once allowed to hold office, and this is constantly laid at our 
door. So be it, the question is chiefly one of time, and the Re- 
publican party has been possessed by an idea, perhaps I should say 
a sentiment that one little badge of blame should be worn for a 
while by those who caused the greatest funeral in history. Now 
the graves have grown green, and the cripples have limped to their 
homes, but the inky cloak has not vanished, and if a political party 



27 

has waited so long before summoning Jefferson Davis back to take 
part in the Government he betrayed, that party is fortunate indeed, 
when this is counted among its chief offenses. 

Again, we are arraigned for the financial policy we have pursued. 
The Democracy scoffed at our plans for refunding the debt at 
lower interest, and pronounced the attempt an absurdity. Events 
have answered these opinions ; and lower interest is already a fact 
accomplished. 

Standing in the way of financial success, the Democracy has at 
the most critical junctures, held up the spectre of repudiation in its 
most specious and dangerous guises. In 1868, in National Conven- 
tion, the whole organization pronounced for dishonest evasion of the 
nation's obligations. Since 1868, State conventions, leading presses 
and leading men have alarmed the capitalists of Europe and of this 
country, by renewed threats of repudiation. 

In Oregon, recently, a Democratic legislature indignantly rejected 
a resolution which simply declared against repudiating the public 
debt. 

In Ohio, the canvass this year has been conducted upon avowals 
of the wildest schemes of expansion by the issue of irredeemable 
paper for the whole bonded indebtedness of the country, and the 
Secretary of the Treasury is forced to the public statement that his 
greatest obstacle in making cheaper terms, has been the action and 
utterances of the Democratic party. 

The tariff is denounced, and the public ear is stunned by cries of 
revenue reform, by which Democrats , profess to mean free trade. 
Yet in Pennsylvania, the Democratic Stoic Convention declared spe- 
cifically in favor of protection for coal and iron, and when the 
House of Eepresentatives repealed the duty on coal and salt last 
winter, the Democratic Senators from Maryland defeated the bill in 
the Senate, by talking against time. 

Senator Williams, of Oregon, well said, that Democrats on the 
tariff were like the school teacher who was asked the shape of the 
the earth, and said some thought it round, and some flat, and he 
was willing to teach round or flat, just as the parents preferred. 

The present tariff is not satisfactory in all things, we know ; it 
will be revised at the next session, and then it will not suit every 
one. 

Changing the tariff is like removing the Capital. You put to 
vote in Congress the question shall the Capital be removed, and you 
may easily get a majority to say yes, but when you propose the 
place it shall be moved to, no matter where that place is, your ma- 
jority will say no. 



28 

So all will agree to a change of the tariff, but when you come to 
the question how, and wherein, each interest and section has its own 
views, and all can not be accommodated. The result is, that while 
our interest account, pension roll, and other expenses inflicted by the 
Eebellion continue, reform of the tariff must consist in the best 
adjustment of details to be deduced from the average judgment of 
the countrv. 

Civil service reform is urged upon us, and all agree that we need 
the best measures in this regard which wisdom can devise. It is a 
very difficult and complex subject, but by what right do our oppo- 
nents clamor about it ? From the Democratic party comes the exam- 
ple, and the chronic practice, of using and abusing political patronage 
for party ends. To this day our opponents have done nothing to 
diminish these evils. When Andrew Johnson attempted to change 
the whole body of office holders for personal ends, avowing by the 
lips of a member of his Cabinent, that no man should "eat his bread 
and butter" unless he stood by him through thick and thin, the 
Democracy justified and applauded him; and when on the thresh- 
hold of General Grant's administration, Congress upheld the tenure 
of office act, as a check upon executive power, the Democratic votes 
in both Houses came forward to strike it down. Democrats railing 
about giving office to partizans, is of a piece with their railing about 
railway grants; both practices were invented and fastened upon the 
country by the Democratic party. 

The late amendments of the Constitution have been the incessant 
theme of denunciation, and now, after branding them as wrong and 
wicked in themselves, and brought about by fraud and usurpation, 
the managers of the democracy come forward with a "new depart- 
ure," and profess themselves in favor of these amendments after all. 

Does not this shock reason and conscience? We know it does, 
because since the new departure was announced, democracy has lost 
in every State, — unless Texas be the exception. 

Was such a spectacle ever witnessed before ? How can men 
adopt a thing bad in itself, and procurred by fraud? A great au- 
thority in a past century tells us that "Covin suffocates the right," 
and all reason teaches that fraud violates every compact. 

Do they mean to adopt the late amendments? If so, they mean 
to confess themselves beaten, and wrong on the great issue of the 
country — then why not go with us? But these amendments require 
legislation by Congress, or they will become dead, and who believes 
that our opponents mean am'thing by their new departure except 
to palter in double sense, to gain power, and then to unsettle and 
uproot ? 



29 

Head the sayings of Thurman in Ohio, of the democratic Governor 
of Kentucky, and of the other oracles, and doubt if you can that 
the new departure is a sham. The resolution adopted by the Tam- 
many Convention at Rochester the other day, reads like nothing 
but an evasion — if it meant that the New York democracy indorses, 
and will stand bj* the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend- 
ments, why didn't they say so? But let me proceed with the faults 
found by our adversaries. 

The President goes to Long Branch — for weeks he is eight hours' 
travel away from Washington, with two mails daily, and a telegraph 
every moment. No emergency can be so sudden that he can not meet 
it at once, and yet what a noise the matter makes. Long Branch is 
not so far removed from the Capital as Mount Vernon was when Wash- 
ington sojourned there. Long Branch is close by, compared with 
the Rip Raps in Hampton Roads, when President Jackson was iso- 
lated there for long periods of time. Long Branch is within sight 
and sound, compared with New England in the days of stage 
coaches, without telegraphs or railways, when President Adams 
passed vacations there. 

In this country, and in other counties, it has been thought that 
men in authority gained much useful knowledge by going from 
place to place ; but we are told now, whatever the example of the 
earlier Presidents, that the present Executive does wrong in jour- 
neying or tarrying away from Washington. This is not a very large 
matter, but I may say that the denunciations in regard to it, will be 
more forcible when anything shall suffer in consequence of the Pres- 
ident's keeping, during the hot weeks, out of the fever and ague of the 
Potomac. Perhaps I need pardon for referring to this, and to another 
matter of which I would speak. A sufficient apology may be found, 
in the extraordinary remarks to which Mr. Tilden, the Chairman of 
the Democratic State Committee, descended the other day, at the 
Tammany State Convention. He said the Democrotic party "has 
never elected to the Presidency any man of as low a standard of 
official life as either of the three Republican Presidents." By what 
reasoning propriety can be claimed for such language, I do not know. 
Because one Democrat murdered Lincoln, I can not see that it be- 
hooves another to tread thus rudely on his grave. Following this 
assault upon the dead, is an assault upon the living, to which I ask 
attention. 

Mr. Tilden alludes to President Grant, as one "who has been en- 
riched by costly presents while exercising the immense power of the 
Presidency." This is an unqualified assertion, made as if upon ab- 



30 

solute knowledge, and yet speaking upon all the information I have, 
I believe it utterly unfounded. The allegation is that since his 
election to the Presidency, General Grant has been the recipient of 
costly gifts. Returning from the war, a victorious general, and hold- 
ing no civil office whatever, he did receive gifts showered upon him 
by a grateful people, but he received them as the hero of many bat- 
tles, and before he was even nominated for the Presidency. His 
case was not solitary. General Sherman also received munifi- 
cent testimonials ; so did other Generals. General McClellan ran 
for the Presidency four years before General Grant ran ; he, too, 
was "enriched by costly presents," given him doubtless in consider- 
ation of his military services, and his political opponents never cast 
foul aspersions on him for it. Wellington,'|after Waterloo, received 
presents amounting to|more than two million dollars. 

Whether heroes, in former or in recentjtimes, have done well or ill 
in accepting tributes from their countrymen, is not, however, the 
point here — be that one way or the other, tne right or wrong is the 
same in all cases alike, and since Gen. Grant'sjaccession to the Pres- 
idency, as far as I can learn, he has never accepted a " costly pres- 
ent " from any one. 

Such are the railings leveled against us, and from them we may 
learn how deep the foundations of one party are laid, and how far 
its work is from completion. 

Having freed millions and made them men, having established 
equal rights for a continent, having conducted victoriously the great- 
est of wars, having in the administration of finances "trampled up- 
on impossibilities," having solved with foreign powers the greatest 
diplomatic problems of the age, having rescued and re-created the 
republic, it remains for the Republican party to keep our country in 
the forefront of nations. 

Such a record and such a destiny will outride the surges we hear 
beating now. 

Let us redeem New York, and let Republicans be honored as they 
are steadfast and earnest in the work. 



[Roberts, Book and Job Printer, 60 Genesee Street, Utica, N. Y.] 



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